News of the Week
july 9-16, 2015
by KELSEy BR Rugg uggER ER @kelseybrugger, @kelseybrugger, K KEI EIth th hA hAmm mm,, tyLER hAy hAyDE DEn n @TylerHayden1,, mA mAtt tt KEttm ttmA Ann @mattkettmann, and nIcK WELSh, with Independent StA StAff
county
UC Now Isla Vista’s Biggest Landlord
Three Tropicana Apartment Buildings Purchased for $156 Million
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by M e L I N d a B U r N s
he University of California has purchased three of Isla Vista’s largest apartment buildings from a Chicago investor for $156 million, breaking area records and becoming the number one landlord in the unincorporated student community. Documents recently made public by the Santa Barbara County assessor’s office show that on June 5, the university paid $92 million for Tropicana Gardens, a 279-bedroom apartment building at 6585 El Colegio Road. It also paid a combined $64 million for Tropicana del Norte at 6525 El Colegio Road and Tropicana Villas at 811 Camino Pescadero, with 241 bedrooms and a parking lot. The properties house more than 1,000 students. John Longbrake, UCSB associate vice chancellor for communications, described the deal in a press release Tuesday as part of the university’s “ongoing efforts to play a larger role in student life in Isla Vista, and to improve the living experience for a large number of UC Santa Barbara students and the surrounding community …” “This was a unique opportunity for the University to make a significant impact and demonstrate our ongoing commitment to the community,” he said. The Tropicanas will remain student housing, UCSB officials said, and will likely be 8
THE INDEPENDENT
July 16, 2015
renovated and integrated into the academic and social life on campus. Previously, the university had owned only the El Dorado and Westgate apartments with 113 bedrooms “inside the box” of Isla Vista proper, an area bounded by the campus, the ocean, Camino Majorca, and the south side of El Colegio Road. With the Tropicanas in hand, UCSB now owns 633 out of 8,486 bedrooms in the community, more than any other single entity. University-owned apartments typically rent for nearly 15 percent less than marketpriced apartments. University student housing is a self-funded enterprise and receives no state money for its operations. The purchase of the Tropicanas is the largest commercial real estate transaction in local memory, experts in the business said this week. In Isla Vista, it follows the $38 million sale of Icon and Icon Gardens in March. The seller of the Tropicanas was Peter Stelian, president of Isla Vista Investors and founder and CEO of Blue Vista Capital Management, the Chicago real estate investment firm that purchased the three buildings in 2010. According to a Wall Street Journal story about that deal, Tropicana Gardens was valued in 2010 at $64 million, and the sale price for Tropicana del Norte and Tropicana Villas was $37 million. Since universities are exempt from property taxes in California, the loss of the Tropiindependent.com
canas would diminish government coffers for schools and services, county officials said. The Tropicanas paid $1.1 million in basic property taxes last year. Third District Supervisor Doreen Farr, who represents Isla Vista, said she appreciates the university’s desire to monitor and provide more student housing but said she was “really surprised” by the purchase. When the university bought Francisco Torres in 2002, Farr noted, “… it was a real hit for the entities that received the benefit”—particularly Santa Barbara–area school districts, which collect about $700,000 in tax revenue every year. The move also displaced hundreds of Santa Barbara City College students, who increasingly occupy many of Isla Vista’s privately owned units. A 1970 Grand Jury report suggested the university seriously consider buying Isla Vista, noting UCSB would be required to pay for and provide all services. A provision in UCSB’s Long Range Development Plan requires the university to pay the county mitigation fees of $280 per bed per year if it purchases property in Isla Vista. Farr said county staff and university administrators regularly meet to discuss various ways to reduce the school’s impact on the community; this issue will be folded into those discussions. Kelsey Brugger contributed to this report.
news briefs LAW & DISORDER
About 40 Refugio Oil Spill cleanup workers were quickly moved out of Tropicana Student Living in Isla Vista after one of them was arrested for DUI on 6/25. David Stern, attorney for Patriot Environmental Services, said the driver has been terminated and explained the cleanup company has a “zero tolerance policy.” The other men in the car had gang affiliations or criminal records, said Foot Patrol Lieutenant Rob Plastino. Stern said Patriot conducts “thorough background checks on all our employees.” He would not address claims that Patriot hires ex-convicts. “Patriot does not comment on rumors,” he said. Early-morning bicyclists made a grim discovery along Tepusquet Canyon Road near Santa Maria on 7/11. Deputies arrived to investigate and found a human body that had been dead for some time. Detectives and forensic examiners on the scene stated the decomposition and mummification would hamper identification and that they couldn’t yet say if a crime was involved in the death. The investigation is ongoing, and no further details were released. Legal skirmishing continued in Judge Colleen Sterne’s courtroom this week for public beach access at Hollister Ranch. Two years ago, Hollister Ranch property owners sued the California Coastal Commission and the State Coastal Conservancy to stop enforcement of a 1982 offer intended to allow the public to travel along the coast via a bluff-top trail and road to reach a 3,880foot private beach at the ranch. This week’s hearing was about exchanging evidence and discovery documents. Two months ago, Judge Sterne denied a motion by ranch owners for the pretrial settlement of certain issues. The case is expected to go to trial early next year. ke lsey b rugge r
rV Wrecking Ball
Anthony John Griffin (pictured below) led Santa Barbara police on a violent chase in his RV Monday afternoon in which at least nine vehicles were hit — including a school bus filled with children — and two officers were injured. None of the schoolchildren were hurt, but one motorist was taken to the hospital with back pains. Police were responding to a 1:49 p.m. domestic violence call involving 28-year-old Griffin and his girlfriend near upper State Street when Griffin locked himself in the RV where they live. As police were negotiating with him to come out, he reportedly cut his own throat with a steak knife, inflicting superficial wounds. Griffin then sped off, running over an officer’s foot and slamming into multiple police cruisers. Police gave chase, but soon after, one of their cruisers collided with a motorcycle officer, who sustained a dislocated finger. Police called off the pursuit and monitored Griffin’s movements from a distance. Griffin surrendered without further incident when his RV broke down at around 2:30 p.m. on westbound Foothill Drive. He was noticeably drunk, authorities said, and on probation. Griffin was charged with a number of felonies, including domestic abuse, resisting arrest, and hit-and-run. His — Indy Staff bail is set at $500,000.
About an hour after the last few college students trickled out of Goleta’s Old Town Tavern (above) on 7/9, the bar was engulfed in flames, badly charring its interior, melting the TVs, and leaving a thick layer of soot over everything. For owners Briny and Bob Litchfield, the last several days have been consumed by meetings with insurance brokers, and it remains to be seen if the Old Town Tavern, or OTT as it’s called, will be repaired and reopen. “I’m just glad nobody was hurt,” Briny said, “and that it wasn’t arson.” OTT is one of a few remaining dive bars known for karaoke. As fate would have it, the cause of the fire was narrowed down to a defective power strip near the karaoke machine.